Mixed Messages
Ch.8
Sleepover
-/-/-/-/-/-/-
A shadowy mound of dark curly hair, pulled back into a pony tail, slowly poked out the doorway into the dark hallway. A set of clear blue eyes furtively scanned back and forth. A petite shadow gingerly crept out. It paused beside an open door, looked, and listened to the sound of heavy, regular breathing. A low creak, a shuffle, and the rustle of blankets broke the silence. The tiny blurred figure froze against the wall inside a dark shadow, listened for the noises to settle back to the sounds of sleep, then carefully slid by. It silently slinked down the stairs, hanging within each dark shadow, and finally darted behind the green fabric trimmed couch in the living room, lit only by the dim glow of a digital clock.
A short thirty seconds later, the appliances in the kitchen flickered as a very low, subtle, pink glow materialized. The fluorescent lamps gently flashed as a glowing shadow slowly crept towards the doorway and hid beside the fridge.
The shadow of a small hand with slender fingers waved, beckoning, at the glow. The glowing apparition of a little blonde haired girl wearing soft purple dinosaur pajamas darted through the wall, into the living room, and crouched down next to the couch. The TV, cable box, and DVD player all flickered quietly when the ghost snuck through the living room. A hushed giggle erupted.
They gave the other a quick hug. "Hey sis! This is going to be so much fun!"
"Mandy, what do you want to do?" The little blonde haired spirit step-sister whispered and sat down cross legged.
The pink heart pajama clad thirteen year old shadow smiled and admired the gentle glow that now lit the room. "Let's build a blanket fort."
The step sisters silently moved wooden chairs around in the living room lit only by Diana's ghostly luminance, then draped a selectable-holiday quilt, a red throw, and several fall themed blankets over them. The shadows crept back into their normal nighttime haunts, save for a single sliver of pink radiance escaping through folds joining the blankets.
The two girls looked at each other and silently chuckled.
"Ooh! I know, wait here."
Amanda silently darted out and dug up some supplies: a mixing bowl, glitter school glue, baking soda, and contact lens saline. She soon crept back into the blanket fort a few minutes later without making a sound.
The glowing apparition smiled and giggled, then poured some glue into the bowl, followed by a shake of powdery baking soda, and a squirt of saline. Glowing ghost fingers reached into the bowl and kneaded, then squirted a bit more saline in, and kneaded some more. She winked at Mandy and nodded. Mandy followed suit.
Soon, they stretched, squished, and molded their soft, colorful, science project inside the safety of their fort. The silence was cut by quiet burps, squishing sounds, and hushed snickering. Diana's glow revealed purple glitter slime squishing between her fingers. Mandy giggled while she kneaded her orange glitter slime.
Next Mandy slid a tablet out of it's secret hiding place in the couch and clicked a picture of Diana sticking her tongue out. The girls snickered and teased as they manipulated the picture of the eerily glowing girl with cat ears, large googly eyes, a silly smile full of huge teeth, and finally a curly mustache and beard. Diana snapped a picture of Mandy and they similarly manipulated it with rabbit ears, a lion's mane, alien eyes, Mohawk hair, and finally also a square, hairy mustache and beard. They each took turns making several silly pictures of each other.
"Can we paint our nails?" Diana asked with a grin.
"Great idea!" Mandy vanished then returned several minutes later with a pink heart shaped zipper box filled with nail polish, wipes, and nail polish remover. Diana wanted to paint each one of her nails a different color. They looked down at glowing fingers tipped with Pink glitter, black, bright red, orange, bright sunny yellow, lime green, burgundy, dark purple, white, and dark forest green.
She giggled, "I changed my mind. Watch this." She relaxed her face and gently shook her iridescent hands. Ten perfectly nail-shaped flakes of shiny fingernail polish fell off and fluttered to the floor. Mandy picked one up, stared for a second, then giggled.
"Mine aren't as easy."
"Have you ever painted your claws?"
"Yes! Lets." Mandy giggled at the idea, wogued into Lowen/Grimm mode, and extended ten black, shiny, razor sharp, hooked claws out of the ends of her fingers. She smiled at Diana through her now-feline monster-girl features.
"What color do you want?"
"Pink!"
They laughed and painted her claws bright pink. They took an extra five minutes to dry, but Mandy giggled as she extended and retracted pink claws out of her fingers. She tried woguing in and out of Lowen mode, and the pink nail polish remained.
Next they snuck out the door into the fenced back yard. The street lights flickered when Diana stepped out the glass sliding door into the yard. Mandy turned a cartwheel, then coached Diana through several tries.
They snuck back under the blanket fort, found some internet videos of cats, penguins, dogs, cutting squishy toys, and finally people falling. Ghost Diana yawned. The contagious yawn spread to Mandy, who couldn't resist. Diana leaned her head back on a small, tan, square, pillow with a turkey decoration on it. Mandy laid her head on a rectangular orange harvest time pillow. The girls pulled a blanket over themselves while they watched kittens and puppies play.
"Do you want to come over to my place next time?"
"How?"
"I'll come get you."
"You can do that?"
"Sure."
"Yay!"
Mandy yawned again and the yawn spread to Diana. Their eyes grew heavy. The warmth of the blanket and the quiet of the fort made staying awake extra difficult. The girls slowly nodded off. Diana's form gently flickered, and disappeared. The blanket covering the now-empty space slowly rumpled down and laid on the floor. Mandy rolled over, hugged the extra pillow, and silently slept.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Dappled morning sun started to creep in the windows when Sandra came down the stairs and saw the blanket fort set up in the living room. She walked into the kitchen, and stared at flashing electronics and blinking touch pads. She scratched pink tipped fingers through her long blonde hair, shrugged, and started fixing a pot of coffee.
She heard a quiet rustle behind her, turned, and looked, to find the blankets neatly folded and returned to their places. She poured a cup of coffee, heard another quiet shuffle, and noticed all the chairs were back in their places.
She walked out, surveyed the living room, sat down on the couch, and clicked on the morning news. She chuckled silently, Kids.
She felt something hard poking her leg. She wrinkled her forehead, slid a hand down into the cushions, and recovered a bright pink tablet decorated with small hearts. She opened it up and paged through mustached daughters and bunny-eared ghosts, tall hair, cat whiskers, and big goggly eyes. She silently giggled watching videos of her daughter wrinkling her brow and scratching her head, trying to put a hand against an upside down, long legged, blonde haired ghost wobbling and swaying on uncertain hands. The ghost grimaced as she kicked her legs over not-so-gracefully, tipped over sideways, and flopped straight through the privacy fence. Mandy scratched her head, staring at the fence slats before hoisting herself up and peering over at the glow next door.
She caught the shadow of a pink blur behind her. "Mandy?"
"Yes mom," quietly echoed out of the kitchen.
Sandra reached down and curiously peered at a bright yellow flake of fingernail polish that looked exactly like a painted fingernail. "Did you have fun last night with your sister Diana?"
There was a long pause, the toaster popped up, then Mandy bounced back in and plopped down on the couch next to her with a blueberry freezer waffle in hand. "Yes!"
Sandra chuckled, Life with a Grimm.
-/-/-/-/-/-
An antique, ebony handled phone sitting on top of an exquisite Brazilian Rosewood and ebony Louis XIV desk rang three times in quick succession. A slender man in a dark suit picked up the phone and laid it into the long, feminine, fingers of a well manicured hand. He looked at the woman. "Your highness."
A blur of red fingernails flicked twice. He nodded, turned, and walked out of the room. Heavy, carved, Turkish walnut doors swung silently shut and their ancient locks clicked.
She brought the polished ebony receiver to her red lips. "A Grimm? Yes, perhaps. Tell me more."
-/-/-/-/-/-
1.5k words 11/15/20 r4